Newfoundpool

Newfoundpool is an area of Leicester lying south of the former Leicester-Swannington railway. The land was purchased by Isaac Harrison in 1830. Harrison intended to develop the area as a spa, using a spring as the source of water for a bathing establishment. Later the building was converted into a residence, Newfoundpool House, in which successive members of the Harrison family lived until 1885. The house became the Empire Hotel on Fosse Road North.

A Leicester builder, Orson Wright, purchased the land in 1885. Wright laid out roads across the area and sold off the land as building plots. The majority of houses built were of the two-storey terraced type, brick-built, with the corner sites constructed as shops. Along Fosse Road North a number of three- and four-storey red-brick villas were built. Until 1891 Newfoundpool was outside the Borough of Leicester, the border running along Fosse Road North. On the same road the parish church of St. Augustine was built over the period 1900 to 1912. The church itself has been abandoned since 2000 and was severely damaged by an arson attack in 2004.^[1]

The Newfoundpool School Board was established in 1889 to address the shortage of school places in the area. It estimated that there were 500 children of school age living in Newfoundpool in 1889 and supervised the construction of the Ingle Street Board School (now the building of Inglehurst Junior School) on land purchased on favourable terms from Orson Wright. The Newfoundpool School Board was dissolved in 1891 and incorporated into the Leicester School Board when the Borough boundaries were extended.

The Fosse Cinema on Fosse Road North later became a bingo hall but was demolished to make way for a Tesco Express shop and filling station.

The area's connection with the Harrison family is commemorated by an acrostic, "IHARRISON", formed by the initial letters of the street names between Pool Road and Beatrice Road.^[2]

Councillor Colin Hall, the Lord Mayor of Leicester during 2010-11,^[3] lived on Beatrice Road from 1965 to 1968 and spent four terms as a pupil of Inglehurst Infant School.

Newfoundpool is part of Fosse Ward and the Leicester West parliamentary constituency.

References

1. ^ http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/leicestershire/3611825.stm
2. ^ Jordan, Christine. The Illustrated History of Leicester's Suburbs. Derby: Breedon Books Publishing Company, 2003 pages 123-125. ISBN 1859833489
3. ^ http://www.leicester.gov.uk/about-leicester/lordmayorcivic/lord-mayor/

Coordinates: 52°38′24″N 1°09′25″W / 52.640°N 1.157°W / 52.640; -1.157